Sunday, September 23, 2012

Hunting for short story markets / What writers do when they get impatient

Been hunting for pro markets to send new stories. I don't like looking for markets that happen to fit what I've already written. It's tedious and boring. Confusing, too, trying to figure out what genre my stories fit into and whether or not a certain publication will accept what I've done. Writing is great. Publishing sucks.

Lately I've been trying to write stories for specific markets as I find them. It has worked in the past, but it comes with a pitfall of its own: submitting too quickly.

I think I made a mistake sending a particular story out too soon. This has happened before. I know, because after merely a week or two of writing I think a story is perfect, but when I revisit it months later, after being rejected by at least one publication, I slap myself on the forehead and think this is dull and if I did this and that it would be better!

This string of failures is trying to convince me that every story, from the longest novel to the shortest piece of flash, needs to rest at least three months. You'd think I would learn by now, but I'm getting impatient. I'm tired of waiting. Tired of waiting for something good to happen. I want to make it happen now.

But I won't make the same mistake again, even with flash fiction. I have to restrain myself, let the stories rest a while longer, then shop around for the right market instead of sending them to the first paying market I find.